Oprah Says ‘Underground’ Is Too Expensive For OWN To Pick Up

Welp. The hunt for a network continues.

When it was recently announced that the critically-acclaimed and ratings hit series Underground had been cancelled by WGN after two seasons, fans were devastated, but were hoping that another network would scoop it up. One of the networks in consideration was Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network, but it is officially out of the running because of the series’ hefty price tag.

Source: Getty Images for WGN America / Getty Images for WGN America

The Huffington Post reports that while doing press for the upcoming second season of the OWN hit series Queen Sugar, Oprah Winfrey was asked about the possibility of OWN picking up Underground for a third season, but unfortunately for fans the news was not good.

In her statement Oprah said, “I can’t afford Underground. It cost twice as much to make as Queen Sugar As a matter of fact, my dear friend John Legend called me personally and asked me about it, but we’d already been talking about how we could make it work … It’s like $5 million an episode, so we can’t afford it. It’s not cheap, I think because it’s a period piece.”

She went on to add that she thinks Underground is a good show and that she really did try to save it, but it didn’t make “good business sense” for OWN to pick up the series.

Now that both BET and OWN are no longer options for a new home for Underground, that leaves streaming service Hulu as the possible front-runner to move forward with a third season.